THE HUMANITY OF JESUS (See The Christian Faith from A to Z Volume 1) By Bob Marcaurelle Copyright 2013 by Bob Marcaurelle Jesus Christ is not only fully God but also fully MAN - a real physical, emotional and spiritual human being - just like us in every way except two. He was not born with a depraved sinful nature, and though tempted like Adam and Eve, He never sinned. The Scriptures Luke 1:34-35 How can this be since I am a virgin (asked Mary)? (The angel answered) The Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and the Holy One born will be called the Son of God. Luke 2:40, 51 And the Child (Jesus) grew in strength and was filled with wisdom... And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Hebrews 2:14-18 Since the children possess flesh and blood He possesses the same... He had to be made just like His brothers in every way so He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest... and make propitiation for the sins of the people. Since He was tempted in that which He suffered He is able to help those who are tempted. Hebrews 5:7-8 In the days of His flesh (life on earth-niv) He offered up prayers and requests with loud crying and tears...he learned from the things He suffered...and when He became perfect He became the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him. Hebrews 4:15 We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. We have One who was tempted in every way just like us, but was without sin.
Deity Restrained Philippians 2:6-7 He who thought it not robbery to be equal to be equal with God made Himself nothing taking the nature of a servant and being made like human beings. It is customary to say that when God the Word became a human being in Jesus He gave up His divine powers like: - Omnipresence- He couldn t be everywhere at once. - Omnipotence- He couldn t control the whole universe. - Omniscience- He didn t know everything. If these were given up Jesus was not God. It is better to say He restrained these qualities to obey God and save man. The best example is a three-legged race. Fathers and daughters make up the teams and one dad is tied to his three year old daughter. To obey the rules of the race the dad must restrain the use of his strength and abilities and accommodate himself to the strength and ability of his daughter. But if a wild dog comes up the dad can break the rules of the race and pick his daughter up and run with her. This is what Jesus did. He took on the limitations of our humanity. But when God wanted Him to work miracles, or to escape the mobs that tried to stone Him (Jn. 10, etc) He used his omnipotence to fulfill God s purposes in His live which was death by crucifixion. In the garden when Peter drew his sword to rescue Him Jesus told him to put it up because if He chose He could call ten thousand angels to rescue him. (Matthew 26:46-56) He was not held to that cross by Roman nails, but by His love and commitment to obey the Father.. He could have called ten thousands angels To destroy the world and set Him free He could have called ten thousand angels But He died alone for you and me A REAL HUMANITY Hebrews 2:14 says Jesus had to be made (NIV, NASV, etc.) like His brothers is every way. Jesus is exactly like us with two exceptions. He was born holy without a sin nature and
though tempted He never gave in and sinned. His full humanity is every bit as important as His full deity. His perfect life and sacrificial death as a true human being makes Him truly able to represent mankind to God with His sacrifice. His perfect life and sacrificial death as God (Acts 20) makes Him truly able to represent God to mankind with His sacrifice. To deny either one is to deny the faith of the New Testament and the Church. If the error of LIBERALISM is to deny the deity but the error of many FUNDAMENTALISTS is to deny the humanity. If a speaker says Jesus was tempted sexually many fundamentalists would charge Him with blasphemy even thought the Bible says He was tempted like us in every way. I heard an outstanding preacher in our denomination say, Sure, Jesus knew the Old Testament, HE WROTE IT. The Son and the Father, through the Holy Spirit DID write the Old Testament, but Jesus of Nazareth, who grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52) knew it because He STUDIED it and LEARNED it. The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight But they while their companions slept Were toiling upwards in the night The Great God of this universe could have known what being human was like by an act of His will, but He did not take that cheap and easy route. He because one of us, feeling our pain and crying our tears. A MYSTERIOUS HUMANITY Paul said, Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). Because of this church history, from ancient Gnostics to modern day cults like Mormonism, is filled with those who simply cannot see Jesus as BOTH God and man at the same time by faith. They limit their faith to what they can understand which is not faith. The background of John s gospel and his letters is the heresy of Gnosticism in the churches. They said He could be God or human but not both. Some took away his deity and others his humanity, so John went out of his way to prove them both wrong. He said, The word was God and The word was made flesh (John 1:1,14). About His humanity he wrote: What was from the beginning (deity); what we HEARD; what we have
SEEN and have TOUCHED WITH OUR HANDS we declare to you. (1 John 1:1) And then as a warning to all who deny the deity or the humanity, he wrote, He who does not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh is a deceiver and an antichrist (2 John. 7) A NECESSARY HUMANITY 1. The Sacrifice (Heb. 2:17; 9:12). The belief in the humanity is vital because in the nature of God it was necessary for our salvation. Hebrews 2 says He had to be like us to be a High Priest and make propitiation (a sacrifice). As the God Man, Jesus is the perfect High Priest. As God He represents God to man and as Man He represents man to God. Only in Jesus do God and Man come together. And Hebrews, the Book that above all other stresses Jesus humanity, in 2:17 says the High Priest is the One who makes atonement (NIV) with his blood (9:12). Jesus is both priest and sacrifice. He offered Himself. Paul said, Christ loved you and gave Himself up for us as an offering and a sweet smelling sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:2). 2. The Sympathy (Heb. 2:18; 4:15). Hebrews 2:18 says our High Priest, tempted by suffering can help us in temptation. Hebrews 4:15 says He sympathizes with our weaknesses. The term means, Your pain in my heart. Jesus became one of us, feeling our pain, shedding our tears and joining our struggles. He didn t just walk around in a body. He was made flesh (Jn. 1:14). He became a human being. When Corie ten Boom and her sister Betsy were stripped naked before Nazi guards in WW II, Betsy saw the rage on Corie s face and whispered, Remember Corie, they stripped our Lord s clothes away also. This didn t answer her questions, but it drew her closer to the Lord and that is what really matters. A GENUINE HUMANITY 1. His Birth (Lk. 1:34-35). The great miracle of the Virgin CONCEPTION and BIRTH did not by-pass Mary. From the womb to the tomb He was human. We have no reason to believe Jesus was not physically connected to her like every baby is to its mother. Paul said Jesus was made of woman (Gal. 4:4). From Mary Jesus received the physical nourishments of humanity and may well have inherited some of her looks and
personality. From God the Holy Spirit, He received His holy character and personality. Jesus had a body (Mt. 26:12); a soul (Mt. 26:38) and a spirit (Lk. 23:46). 2. His Physical Nature (Jn. 6:46; 1 Tim 2:5; etc.) Jesus, apart from being sinless, appears to have had a normal childhood. He was subject His parents (Lk. 2:51) and was even criticized by His brothers (Mt. 12:46; Mk. 3:21; Jn. 7:1-5). He grew physically (stature), mentally (wisdom) and spiritually (favor with God and man) (Lk. 2:52). W. T. Conner says no one who takes the New Testament seriously will have any doubts about the humanity of Jesus. Look at Him. The Woman of Samaria looked at Him and recognized He was a Jew (Jn. 4:9). He called Himself a man (Jn. 8:40) and so did others like Peter (Acts 2:22). He was hungry at times (Mt. 21:18). He was thirsty on the cross (Jn. 19:28) and grew weary on His journeys (Jn. 4:6). Hit Jesus and He bruised. Cut Jesus and He bled. Nail Him to a cross and He dies and is buried. 3. His Emotions. Practically every emotion known to man is seen in Jesus. He loved Lazarus (Jn. 13:23); He had compassion (Mt. 9:36) for the multitudes. The Greek word refers to bowels and some translate it deeply moved. He was angry at the hard hearted Pharisees (Mk. 3:5) and wept (Lk. 19:41) over lost Jerusalem. All these emotions are attributed to GOD in the Old Testament but Jesus had other emotions we see as distinctly human. He expressed surprise when only one of the ten lepers He cleansed came back to thank Him (Lk. 17:17). He was deeply troubled in Gethsemane (Mk.14:32-42). It seems He did not want to be alone the night before He died (Lk, 22:15). He marveled at the faith of a Gentile (Lk. 7:9) and the unbelief of Jews in Nazareth (Mk. 6:6). He felt constrained to finish His mission (Lk. 12:50). Notice how many of these verses were penned by Dr. Luke. In his investigations and interviews he seems to have sought for the human touch in our Lord s nature. 4. His Spiritual Nature. It seems blasphemous, says Erikson, to say Jesus was spiritually limited and grew spiritually, but that s the way He is pictured in the New Testament. He was perfect at every stage (Heb. 5:8) but it involved intense struggles (Heb. 5:7) and great dependence on God. He saw the need to pray, especially on important occasions like choosing the Twelve
(Lk. 6:12). He rose up early sometimes to pray (Mk. 1:35); struggled with the unknown horrors of the cross in Gethsemane (Mt. 26: 38). The bloody sweat is a known medical condition experienced under unbearable stress. Many believe Hebrews 5:7 teaches He almost died that night and was spared by God through His prayers: In the days of His flesh He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. On the cross He cried, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Mt. 27:46). Luke says He grew in favor with God (Lk. 2:51). Hebrews says, He learned obedience through the things He suffered (Heb. 5:7-8). And His power to serve God and man came from His being anointed by the Holy Spirit of God (Acts 10:38; Lk. 4:18). He was dependent on God like you and me. 5. His Intellectual Nature. He grew in wisdom (Lk. 2:51). Like us there were many things Jesus did not know. He did not know, He said, the time of His second coming (Mk. 13:32). He does not seem to have understood the WHY of His terrible death. In Gethsemane He asked God if there could be another way to save men (Mt. 26:39) and on the cross He asked God WHY He had forsaken Him (Mt. 27:46). A SINLESS HUMANITY (Heb. 4:15; Jn. 8:46; 2 Cor. 5:21, etc.) 1. The Meaning Hebrews 4:15 says He was tempted in all points like us yet WITHOUT SIN. From the womb to the tomb He was free from all sin. He was born holy (Lk. 1:35) through the Virgin conception, and like Adam and Eve did not have a sin nature like ours. (Karl Barth and others, using 2 Cor. 5:21, say Jesus had a sin nature like us, but never sinned. The New Testament seems to teach otherwise.) He is called the last Adam who became a life giving spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) and the second man from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47). His victory over temptation is both positive and negative. Jesus never disobeyed God and always did what pleased God. He was love and goodness incarnate and never sinned in thought, word, deed or motive. A.H. Strong sees Him (p. 678) as the ideal human being, combining what is best from both sexes and all races and nationalities. H. R. Mackintosh says it best:
No miracle of Christ equals the miracle of His sinless life. To be holy in all thought and feeling, never to fail in duty to others, never to transgress the law of perfect love to God and man, never to exceed or come short - this is a condition outstripping the power of imagination and almost of belief. (The Doctrine of the Person of Christ, p. 403) 2. The Claim. The New Testament proclaimed it. Hebrews says He was without sin (4:15) and without blemish (9:14). Peter said He committed no sin (1 Pet. 2:22). Paul said Jesus knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21). John said, In Him there is no sin (1 Jn. 3:5). Other people, while they don t prove sinlessness, testify to His noble character. Pilate s wife called Him righteous (Mt. 27:19). Pilate said he found no fault in Him (Jn. 18:38). The dying thief said He did nothing wrong (Lk. 23:41). The Centurion who saw Him die said, Certainly this was a righteous man (Lk. 23:47). Second Jesus claimed it. Our Lord taught us to confess our sins but He never confessed one. He taught against selfrighteous people who proclaim their goodness (Lk. 18:9), yet He did it. He said to His critics, Which one of you can convict me of sin? (Jn. 8:46) He said of God, I always do the things that are pleasing to Him (Jn. 8:29). He said of the devil, He has nothing in Me (Jn. 14:30). 3. The Possibility Bible scholars disagree over whether or not Jesus COULD have sinned. Some say as God He could not sin. The problem here is that James 1:13 says God can t be tempted sin, yet Jesus was tempted. Some compare it to saved people who cannot go back to sin and perish even though we are tempted to do so (Jn. 10:28). We can never know for sure whether Jesus COULD have sinned or not. To me if He couldn t that cheapens His victory. I believe He risked everything for me, facing a danger that was real. I believe that He could have but the important thing is that he DIDN T. And praise God, because He didn t we are saved by His life (Rom. 5:10). Paul said, Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin, so we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). 4. The Victory for Us One way Jesus death benefits us is that it was the victory of a
Soldier. In Col. 2:14-15 says of Jesus offering His sinless life for us on the cross, He cancelled the debt / having nailed it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers raged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it, the cross. (Amplified Bible). Eph. 4:8 says, When He ascended on high, He led captivity capture - He led a train of vanquished foes. The first century picture behind this is that of the Roman Triumph, when a Roman general came home in a grand parade with his enemies chained to his chariot wheels and the spoils of war filling the carts. Just as David fought Goliath for Israel, Jesus fought the Devil for you and me. And He won. He won the right to let anyone He wants to into heaven. When a sinner comes in Satan cannot accuse God of excusing sin. Jesus punishment in our place pays for our sins (Romans 3:21-27). His perfect life is substituted for our imperfect life.